@USRF Obiwan
Agreed, but you can single-handedly blame oil companies for that - they're almost ruining our economy by themselves, along with companies like Wal Mart.

But anyways back to the topic, I'd say great job to Soitec, although if other companies aren't already aware of how to manufacture fin-FETs the way Soitec does then I'm not sure if giving out their secret was the best idea.

@USRF Obiwan
Agreed, but you can single-handedly blame oil companies for that - they're almost ruining our economy by themselves, along with companies like Wal Mart.

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Wut? As far as I'm aware, oil companies provide direct employment for millions of people, are the backbone of our economies and have single-handedly enabled the massive growth of the world's economy over the last hundred years. Without cheap energy the tech market could never have exploded like it has. Moore's law relies entirely on the availability of cheap energy. Without the long-chain hydrocarbons extracted from oil-wells the plastics industry would not exist at all. Without plastics, I'd imagine half the things you see in a room would not exist.

Oil companies may well ruin the environment, but please don't blame them for the economy - that is the product of government mismanagement and the financial markets' unhealthy interest in financial instruments.

And now, back to the thread

Soitec seem to have done a good job, it will be interesting to see how far this is taken up in the future.

'As well as its FD-3D and related planar FD-2D wafers, Soitec has announced plans to introduce strained silicon versions of its wafers.' I've rang Tunnocks and they said they're looking into this as it could be a fringe of copyright

@schmidtbag - this is a press release FROM Soitech. I doubt this article contains any trade secrets. They actually have a lot more information about their product(s) on their website.

@Obiwan - gas powered engines have been improving and still are. It's not fair to compare the progress of the combustion engine (over 200 years old) during the last 30 years to semi-conductors (about 60 years old). In all probability a lot more RnD hours have been dedicated to improving engines than to improving semi-conductors.

Wut? As far as I'm aware, oil companies provide direct employment for millions of people, are the backbone of our economies and have single-handedly enabled the massive growth of the world's economy over the last hundred years. Without cheap energy the tech market could never have exploded like it has. Moore's law relies entirely on the availability of cheap energy. Without the long-chain hydrocarbons extracted from oil-wells the plastics industry would not exist at all. Without plastics, I'd imagine half the things you see in a room would not exist.

Oil companies may well ruin the environment, but please don't blame them for the economy - that is the product of government mismanagement and the financial markets' unhealthy interest in financial instruments.

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They have positioned themselves at the core of the economy either destroying or buying and mothballing any competition that comes along. yes they were greatly responsible for a centuries worth of growth, but the oil industry needs to be happy with its lot and move over to the new breed of energy. shame they wont do that till the oil runs out.

All the oil companies do now is stifle technological advancement. If abundant cheap energy is whats needed to progress then Tesla's work should never have been hushed up, because ultimately we would probably all have free electricity by now.

I'm not into conspiracy theories but Tesla goes to show that bigger forces are at work behind the scenes without a doubt. Shame he was a little bit crazy as well as genius. what i wouldn't do to know what he knew.